Our role and work

The historic built environment has a key role to play in mitigation, sustainability and adaptation.

The Scottish Government has set ambitious climate change targets to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions by 42% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. As a public body, it’s our task to help the country reach them.

The targets present significant opportunities and challenges for Scotland, and demand action from across society and the economy. We want to lead the way globally in showing how the historic built environment has a key role to play in mitigation, sustainability and adaptation.

The historic built environment should play an important part in:

achieving emissions reduction targets

creating sustainable economic, social and environmental opportunities

the switch to a low carbon economy

how we adapt to the impacts of a changing climate

Historic Environment Scotland is working on projects to mitigate emissions from our own operations, adapt our buildings and make our activities more sustainable.

We also support the public and our partners by providing advice and publishing research on measures to:

improve energy efficiency in traditional buildings

adapt traditional buildings to the changing climate

It’s all part of our obligation to significantly reduce our impact on the environment and ensure the sustainable future of our built heritage for generations to come.